The provocative photography zine celebrating loose living

What does it mean to be loose in 2018?

For Joe Goicoechea, Charlie Warcup and Sam Hamer, the founders of the eponymous zine, it’s about “having a belter on Wednesday night” and seeing what happens after that. That’s pretty much as deep as it gets.

Having formed in the summer 2016 after too many “cheap red wines”, Loose began as declaration of independence. The three friends – all working creative jobs in the advertising industry and yearning for a project in which they had full creative control – launched the zine as an all-encompassing space for art, photography and general free-spirited misbehaviour.

“Anyone and everyone can be a part of it,” they tell Huck. “We don’t care if you’re an international artist or a complete unknown, we like slamming those two worlds together and making it as inclusive as possible. If the work is lush, we’ll put it in the book.”

In April 2017 the trio shared their first issue, inviting contributors to submit work in in whatever medium they wanted. The brief, naturally, was straight to the point: ‘Loose’.

For their second instalment, they’ve kicked on with more of the same. Having continued with the same one-word mandate when it came to submissions, the collective invited various different interpretations of the titular term: the looser, the better.

Loose Issue Two features work from a plethora of artists – including Epicly Later’d creator Patrick O’Dell, Sex Skateboards founder Louis Slater, London-based painter Daisy Parris and Doomed Gallery’s Matt Martin – curated together in a roguish, A5 package. On Wednesday 21st February, they’re having a party at Brick Lane’s 5th Base Gallery to launch it.

For the three founders, the second they begin to overthink the project, the second it ceases to be. The zine – a mischievous smattering of art and photography that zips from candid to confrontational – is a celebration of making it up as you go along. Anything else is just a bonus.

“We’re absolutely winging it – and we’re having a fucking good time. That was the plan when we first set Loose up, so the less we know going forward, the better.”

Join Loose for their Issue Two Launch Party on Wednesday 21 February, 2018. 

Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

---